That they might not be quite unprepared for the event of her son's going to Ireland, Lady Clonbrony wrote a note to Mrs.Broadhurst, begging her to come half an hour earlier than the time mentioned in the cards, 'that she might talk over something PARTICULAR that had just occurred.' What passed at this cabinet council, as it seems to have had no immediate influence on affairs, we need not record.

Suffice it to observe, that a great deal was said, and nothing done.

Miss Broadhurst, however, was not a young lady who could be easily deceived, even where her passions were concerned.

The moment her mother told her of Lord Colambre's intended departure, she saw the whole truth.

She had a strong mind--was capable of drawing aside, at once, the curtain of self-delusion, and looking steadily at the skeleton of truth--she had a generous, perhaps because a strong mind; for, surrounded, as she had been from her childhood, by every means of self-indulgence which wealth and flattery could bestow, she had discovered early, what few persons in her situation discover till late in life, that selfish gratifications may render us incapable of other happiness, but can never, of themselves, make us happy.